Awards and Recognition
President's Volunteer Service Award
President George W. Bush presented the President's Volunteer Service Award to Mary Frances Ward on July 18 during a visit to Tucson. Ward volunteers at Harriet Johnson Primary School, where she uses 35 years of experience as an educator to help students with early literacy skills.
She volunteers with Experience Corps, a volunteer program for people over age 55, administered by the Volunteer Center of Southern Arizona. Experience Corps members tutor and mentor elementary school students, help teachers in the classroom, and lead after-school enrichment activities.
President Bush honors a local volunteer when he travels throughout the United States to thank them for making a difference in the lives of others. He has met with more than 650 volunteers, like Ward, since March 2002.
Santa Rita's automotive program receives national certification
Santa Rita High School's automotive program has been certified by the National Automotive Technicians Education Foundation, making it one of the four high school programs in the city with the certification.
Tucson Unified's Cholla Magnet and Rincon high schools, as well as Flowing Wells High School have the certification. In the Phoenix area, the automotive programs of Northern Arizona Vocational Institute of Technology and East Valley Institute of Technology also are certified.
"TUSD has 50 percent of the schools certified in the state," said Brian Forstall, Tucson Unified's industrial technology coordinator for Career and Technical Education (CTE). "We're putting a package together for Sahuaro and we're doing a re-certification for Palo Verde," he added.
NATEF is headquartered in Leesburg, Va. The foundation's national certification signals that students have:
- A thorough knowledge of automotive systems and components;
- good computer skills;
- excellent communication skills;
- above average mechanical aptitude;
- good reasoning ability;
- the ability to read and follow instructions; and,
- manual dexterity.
Bob Saul is the automotive instructor at Santa Rita, at 3951 S. Pantano Road. The school was notified of the certification in June. There were approximately 160 students enrolled in Santa Rita's program last year. Graduates of the three-year program are prepared for jobs as automotive technicians.
The automotive vocational program is supported by Tucson's franchise dealers and independent garages, said Forstall. In their junior years, students job-shadow in garages or at dealerships, working for free for one or two hours a day, four or five days a week. After job-shadowing, students graduate to full-time, paid internships the summer before their senior years.
"Most seniors go to school in the morning and work at a dealership in the afternoon," Forstall added.
When school began in August, Forstall said, 50 students on scholarship in the automotive industry, were going to school part-time at Pima Community College and working full time.
All programs are Joint Technology Education District-level programs. "TUSD is taking the lead in putting the JTED programs together," Forstall said.
Acquiring certification is a two-year process that can cost more than $50,000. "JTED funding helped us get certification for Santa Rita," Forstall said, explaining that schools must have the tools necessary to offer a complete curriculum. "The infrastructure in the classroom can be rather expense; a lift can be $20,000."
Forstall said all equipment is technology-based so students must know how to program car computers. "When you finish the program you're not an "automotive mechanic, you're an automotive technician," he said.
For more information, call Forstall at 603-0549.